News Briefs

On June 23 Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens honored auxilary Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan for his “fifty years of vision, leadership and unwavering support” at the annual Bishop’s Humanitarian Award Dinner. • According to the G.A.O., six organizations that perform or promote abortion received at least $967 million in federal funding in the fiscal years 2002 through 2009 • Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, expressed “grave concern” about an F.D.A. decision to label as an emergency contraceptive a drug thought to cause abortions. • The Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, a Baptist pastor, has been nominated by President Obama to be ambassador at large for international religious freedom. • Caritas Internationalis says at least 10 million people in West Africa’s Sahel region face hunger unless the international community responds to the mounting food crisis. • Bishop J. Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., bishop promoter of the Apostleship of the Sea, announced on June 16 that the apostleship was setting up a network to help both the environment and people affected by the BP disaster.